Mac laptops do use 2.5" hard drives. You can run Verify Disk from /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility to check hard drive health. While you have Disk Utility open, make a note of whether the S.M.A.R.T. status of the drive is shown as "verified".

Mac OS X has Disk First Aid as part of the Disk Utility program, which you'll find in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder. Click on the First Aid tab after launching Disk Utility. You can also get Spin Rite From GRC.com It costs $89.99 but is well worth it and works great on any computer that can boot from a CD.

I really like Disk Warrior if you have drive problems. Apple's Disk Utillity will tell you if there is a SMART problem but it does not always find all of the directory structure issues. Disk Warrior solves problems both when Disk Utility finds problems but can't fix them and when DU doesn't even find them.

It sounds like you want to try to put your Dell 2.5" drive into your friend's Mac, and test/repair the drive that way. This would work (if it has a compatible interface) but there are probably less disruptive options.

I'm guessing that you exhausted your options keeping the disk in your Dell and debugging in situ.

A better option than trying to stick this drive into your friend's Mac would be to get a small USB or Firewire enclosure for it and attach it to the Mac using USB or FW.

The Mac can format the drive using Disk Utility. I would do the "Security" Option to do a one pass zero of the drive. This should detect and map out any bad sectors or return an error message if the drive is not reliable. Make sure that you set the Partition type for the computer that you will be using. Mac Os Extended (journaled) for Mac, or PC for PC.

I guess the question is why you would want to use a Mac to format a drive for a PC, if that is indeed what you are trying to do. The Mac can only format the drive as FAT32, not NFS and you don't want a large drive formatted as FAT32.

There are any number of PC utilities o repair your drive in the PC without the use of a Mac.

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